You reach an age and time in life when you start really thinking about what matters. Lately I’ve been thinking about the loved ones I’ve lost over the recent years. My father, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. The thing about people is you think they will always be around and when they are gone you dwell on all the good times. I love to tell stories and my stories involve some of the greatest people, an so many are gone.
Many days I still pick up the phone to call my dad, forgetting he is no longer here to answer. I sometimes think about that friend or loved one and start to reach out, only to realize, they are gone.
Mortality is a strange creature.
My thoughts often drift to my own mortality. I try to make every day count, every minute with my adult and soon to be adult children are even more precious. I recently met up with a few college buddies (more like brothers) and realized that almost 33 years had passed since we had gotten together. All have been successful in life, with love and family. Our kids (well, young adult children) met and are close to the age of our first meeting. All those nights in the dorms, playing spades, riding around, going to parties and just hanging out, then 33 years flies by; marriages, kids, divorce and all sorts of things inbetween.
Think about the people you use to be tight with, see everyday and then, poof, you never speak again, because, well life… It’s hard to think that you can talk to someone every single day and then never again. Nothing bad happened, no falling out….it’s just life.
Want to know what doesn’t matter? Jobs, money, politics, drama, gossip and all the bs. I am 52 at the time of this writing. I just had my first every surgery (outpatient, umbilical hernia repair) and all I really want to do is play some spades, shoot some hoops, and just lounge around the dorm talking trash and laughing.
Alex Putman 